Friday, February 09, 2018

Goalie Announcements (Feb 9)

As we head towards the first weekend of the third segment of the regular season, we're looking at a fairly busy Friday night for all of our teams, but most notably, for this blog post, we'll look at the top five teams (plus ties) for the Mover & Shaker nod of the week. That mention would mean that they would be the top team at the start of the third segment and going in the right direction, up the standings... in theory.

So, in the order of our top teams this week, we have...

Jake Allen (Cam) versus Connor Hellebuyck (Neil)
Neil's 19th place team is tops on the list for weekly scoring in Week Nineteen and gets his only start of the night in Winnipeg, with the league's 2nd-best goalie, Connor Hellebuyck of the Jets. Neil's team has been stuck in 19th place for the last seven weeks and now he's just a point away from moving up in the standings and this is a pretty good look at that point coming true.

Petr Mrazek (Mike) versus Thomas Greiss (Dale B.)
Neither Benson or Troy have starts tonight and they are 1 point back of Neil's team, so we move to Dale B.'s team and he gets the nod for the Islanders tonight, as his goalie, Thomas Greiss, goes up against the Red Wings. In these first two games, Benson's goalies got snubbed, which leaves his team wide open from the crease for a takeover and that's exactly what Dale's team intends to do... as well as trying to regain 1st place again.

Mike Smith (Ryan) versus Ondrej Pavelec (N/A)
The New York Rangers are in complete disarray, which may work out well for Ryan's team, as it opens the night only 3 points back of the Mover & Shaker and he gets a start from Mike Smith and the traveling Flames, as they are in the Big Apple to take on said Rangers. The Flames have been regaining their winning ways on this current eastern swing and the public sell-off announcement from Rangers management couldn't come at a better time for the visiting team.

Remarkably, there are eight teams to choose from under the parameters given... top five teams this week, plus ties, but only three games fit the bill tonight. So, there you go!